[liberationtech] pgp message encryption and decrypion using just a browser

[Frank Corrigan]

Thanks for this Danny, on reflection I can now see how some of my
thinking was a bit wooly. Whilst the hanewin resource exists to be able
to send a pgp message using an online page, with a Public key [1]. It
does still require downloading it's dependent code[2]. I was and I still
am keen to to identify an online, akin to hanewin's, but one that can
equally Decrypt a text based pgp message. Of course creating encryption
keys does require software in addition to a web browser. But I still do
think it would been very helpful to many to be able to access an online
resource for the sending and reading of pgp messages, without the need
of additional software and one that can be used off-line and downloaded
locally or kept on a usb stick for greater portability.

I have read the material you highlighted and can see I was touching upon
a number of complex issues. Whilst web browsers may not have the best
UIs, they are somewhat ubiquitous and familiar to many. Whilst this
apparent familiarity is not without issues I do think the hanewin
resource is a user friendly option. 

My related tech background is creation of web sites, but I have somewhat
side stepped having to learn code by using wysiwyg software such as
Dreamweaver. My insights into developing the best usable websites has
been built upon the likes of Jakob Nielsen's Website
<http://www.useit.com> and producing online resources that follow the
likes of Krug's 'Don't make me think' web usability guidance
<http://www.sensible.com>.

Frank

cc: Maximilien Cuony (original firegpg author)

[1] http://www.hanewin.net/encrypt/PGcrypt.htm

[2] <script language="Javascript" src="rsa.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script language="Javascript" src="aes-enc.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script language="Javascript" src="sha1.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script language="Javascript" src="base64.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script language="Javascript" src="PGpubkey.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script language="Javascript" src="mouse.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script language="Javascript" src="PGencode.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>

[3] 



----- Original message -----
From: "Danny O'Brien" <DObrien at cpj.org>
To: "Frank Corrigan" <email at franciscorrigan.com>
Cc: "liberationtech at lists">liberationtech at lists.stanford.edu"
<liberationtech at lists">liberationtech at lists.stanford.edu>
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2010 03:00:13 -0400
Subject: Re: [liberationtech] pgp message encryption and decrypion using
just a browser

This really isn't what you want Frank (at all!), but its bizarreness
plus tangential connection to your question was too good to miss:

http://www.links.org/?p=993

It's TLS (including client-side certificates), re-implemented in
in-browser Javascript. Ben's point is that such an implementation allows
greater experimentation with security UI, which I think everyone agrees
is the current Hard Problem.

d.

On Sep 23, 2010, at 11:08 PM, Frank Corrigan wrote:

> For some time I have been investigating the availability of web pages
> that provide easy to use password creation and message encryption
> functions, which only depend upon web browsers inbuilt javascript
> capabilities and can therefore be downloaded and used off line. And
> works across all common OSs and browsers.
> 
> Examples are 
> https://www.pwdhash.com 
> as one of many options for password creation 
> 
> and http://www.hanewin.net/encrypt/PGcrypt.htm 
> to encrypt messages using a recipients pgp Public key.
> 
> The help I am requesting is whether anyone knows of an online resource,
> that meets the above criteria, that can not only encrypt text using a
> pgp Public key but also has a facility to decrypt a pgp message with the
> recipients Private key? 
> 
> I am aware of FireGPG:
> http://getfiregpg.org/s/home
> 
> which is excellent, though sadly now discontinued, but it is tied to
> Fire Fox through an add-on and it's functions are dependent upon a local
> install of GPG.
> 
> Thanks
> Frank
> _______________________________________________
> liberationtech mailing list
> liberationtech at lists">liberationtech at lists.stanford.edu
> 
> Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to:
> 
> https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech